Tai'an

Tai'an is a city in Shandong whose Eastern Gate marks the approach to the Shan family’s manor. In the account of Qiao Feng and A'Zhu’s journey, the city becomes the setting for a devastating reversal: before Qiao Feng can confront Shan Zheng, the manor has burned and the family has been killed. The disaster also exposes how completely suspicion has gathered around Qiao Feng, even as his response shows him refusing to answer public hatred with violence.

Setting and Arrival

Shan Zheng lived outside Tai'an’s Eastern Gate and was widely known in the city. Qiao Feng and A'Zhu arrived at twilight after travelling east, asking their way to the Shan family’s home and riding through the city. About a li beyond the gate, they saw smoke rising and heard gongs and calls for help. The fire’s scale became unmistakable as they drew near: villagers had gathered to fight it, but water thrown onto the flames turned to vapor without stopping the blaze.

The Shan Manor Fire

The villagers said that Shan Zheng had helped poor people and those struck by disaster for decades. They reported that more than thirty members of his family had died in the fire, and speculated that the assailants had blocked the doors to prevent escape. Their account made the family’s martial reputation part of the horror: even a five-year-old child in the Shan household was said to know martial arts, yet no one had escaped.

The fire brought Qiao Feng’s own history with the family into the scene. He had killed the Shan Clan’s two Tigers, leaving the family with deep grounds for hatred, and he had expected a serious confrontation when he came to Tai'an. Instead, he arrived after the disaster. He felt sorrow and sympathy for Shan Zheng and his descendants, rather than satisfaction at the misfortune of enemies.

Rumor and Qiao Feng’s Response

At the fire, villagers connected the deaths to Qiao Feng. They recalled that Shan Zheng’s sons had been killed in Henan and concluded that the person who had set the manor ablaze must be the same supposed villain. Some blamed Qiao Feng directly, imagining that he had led followers into the manor and massacred the family. The accusation was rumor, not an account of what Qiao Feng had done at Tai'an; the scene establishes that he arrived after the manor had already suffered its fate.

A'Zhu feared that the villagers’ abuse would provoke Qiao Feng into another massacre. She saw instead that he seemed sorrowful, regretful, and sympathetic, and that he regarded the peasants as foolish rather than as people worth killing. He sighed and chose to leave. Tai'an therefore marks a quiet but important contrast between the violence attributed to him by strangers and the restraint he displays in their presence.

Departure and Narrative Significance

Qiao Feng and A'Zhu turned south toward Mount Tiantai, where Zhiguang lived. Qiao Feng did not hurry as he had earlier in the journey: he reasoned that travelling more deliberately might give him a chance to protect Zhiguang’s life, whereas a rapid arrival might find the monk dead and his temple burned. His departure from Tai'an carries the shock of the manor’s destruction forward, redirecting the journey while deepening the contrast between his feared public image and his actual response to suffering.